But something seems to have gone awry. Specifically, with the Green Deal, a form of funding until now happily recommended to busnesses by many an environment consultant.
If you look at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website, it appears this funding stream for things like solar panels is available to businesses. It refers to “householders and businesses” and boasts that “By 2020 the Green Deal could reduce UK household and business carbon emissions by 4.5m tonnes per year.”
Yet ring up the DECC to check businesses are eligible and the answer is definitely not: the Green Deal is for domestic customers only, it says, and has never been a business product.
So why does the website say it is? And why have there been countless environmental press column inches about how poorly the Green Deal has been marketed to businesses if this was never its intended audience?
Was the Green Deal once available to businesses and now is not? Or were plans to launch it for business scrapped? When pressed, the DECC concedes the website “may be wrong – we’ll look into it.”
Clear as mud, then. And so is it any wonder printers – with a million other things to worry about – struggle to know what funding is available to them, when such confusion exists even within government?
If indeed the Green Deal is off limits to printers, then the slim green funding pickings available to printers have just got even slimmer.
“Finding funding is not easy and what’s there is not well publicised,” says ClareTaylor, environmental consultant to the print industry. “This is a real shame. Ultimately savings on energy, particularly that used to run the building, come straight off the bottom-line costs. Lower overheads, even if just a little lower, can make a big difference, especially when times are tight. So these schemes that put green initiatives within reach of businesses are very useful.”
Carbon Trust/Siemens loan for energy efficiency improvements
The Carbon Trust claims that it can help your business “put cost-saving energy efficiency strategies into practice, with leases, loans, finance and implementation support to make energy efficiency easy”.
Any printer will tell you that nothing is ever easy. But the Carbon Trust does have a good track record in lending, with more than 35,000 customers lent to, amounting to £1.6bn worth of energy efficient equipment and resulting, it says, in “a £3.7bn reduction in energy costs”.
Backed by technology giant Siemens, the money comes in three formats: leases, loans and hire purchase. An independent carbon-saving assessment is undertaken by Carbon Trust Implementation Services while the financing is provided by Siemens Financial Services. You pay the loan repayments out of the savings you make on energy.
Who’s eligible?These financing options are available to all types of organisations that have been trading for more than 36 months and are seeking to reduce their own energy use. The business case has to be proved, crucially that repayments will be paid from the savings made (you’ll only be eligible for funding if this is the case). And there are restrictions on suppliers.
Why use it? This scheme has a good track record with printers; and it has a solid basis for lending in that repayments should come from savings made.
Further details www.carbontrust.com/client-services/technology/implementation
Contact implementation@carbontrust.com or 020 7832 4806
Climate Change Agreement
This is not strictly a funding scheme, but rather a way of reducing the energy tax on your company, releasing money that can then be reinvested into green initiatives.
According to the BPIF, the nuts and bolts of the scheme are thus: a Climate Change charge has been levied on the energy bills of all companies since 2001 and it has usually been increased each year by the rate of inflation. Since 2001 energy-intensive companies, such as those in the printing industry, have been allowed to claim a discount from the levy in return for improving their energy efficiency. To do this, sites enter into a Climate Change Agreement with the government and submit data every two years via their industry trade association.
The Climate Change Agreement gives you a reduction on the climate levy of up to 90% for electricity and 65% for gas in return for reducing carbon emissions to targets set by government.
“You can only join the Climate Change Agreement if you are eligible [see below], but if you are, you make good savings,” says environmental consultant Clare Taylor.
The targets can be challenging, she warns, and you have to buy carbon offsets to make up the difference if you don’t meet them.
Simon Hopkins, information systems manager at Park Communications, says his company has signed up to this scheme. “This provides a tax saving of £11,000 per year if we maintain the reductions,” he explains. “The scheme is maintained by the BPIF and they charge us £2,300 per year for access to the funding.”
Who’s eligible? In order to qualify as energy intensive, a site needs to have an annual electricity consumption of 6m kWh’s or more. The Climate Change Agreement scheme is voluntary and a company can leave at any time with no penalty other than losing the discount going forward.
The BPIF advises that in order to calculate whether it’s worth joining the scheme a printing site should first find out how much the levy is costing. The levy appears on a site’s energy bills, or a company can calculate the saving from its annual electricity and gas consumption.
Why use it? It can deliver significant savings as well as stronger environmental performance. But be aware that targets can be a challenge to meet.
Further details www.britishprint.com or www.bit.ly/BPIFclimate
Contact Steve Walker is the BPIF’s CCA manager. You can contact him on 01676 526050, or email steve.walker@bpif.org.uk
Electricity Demand Reduction (EDR)
Although this is just a pilot scheme at the moment it could well turn into a useful source of finance for printing businesses. Launched in June, the EDR means businesses and other organisations that wish to install “measures that deliver verifiable reductions in electricity demand” will be able to bid for a financial incentive to do so. The government says things such as installing more efficient motors, air-conditioning and lighting are examples of the kinds of measures that could receive support. There will be at least £20m of funding given out.
If all goes to plan, it should work like this: applicants will bid in an auction to deliver an electricity demand reduction, expressed in kW. They will need to submit a project plan with estimated savings and a plan for measuring and verifying these (a manual will be provided to help with this). They can then bid for the whole value of the project, or just part of it. What companies have to bear in mind is that ‘bidding’ for all the money and delivering minimal savings is not going to see you get funded. This is a competitive auction, and funding is allocated based on a £/kW bid, so you need to deliver
more for less than those you are bidding against.
Successful bidders will be required to sign a contract to deliver that electricity demand reduction through the installation of lasting energy efficient measures – for example, replacing old lighting installations for more energy efficient ones. Successful bidders will receive funding in line with the level of their bid and the amount of savings proposed, spread across a payment at installation and on provision of evidence that savings have been delivered.
This is a grant, not a loan. So you won’t have to pay the money back.
Who’s eligible? Savings will need to be demonstrably relevant to the peak period for electricity demand, which the government defines as 3pm-7pm each winter weekday (November to February). Projects should be based in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales). Applicants from all sectors - public, private and voluntary - are eligible. You cannot apply if:
- The project simply shifts the energy demand period from that specified to another part of the day.
- The savings are made by switching to another energy source (eg switching to combined heat and power).
- If the measures you are seeking funding for have been installed before the signing of the grant offer letter.
- If the measures you are seeking funding for have received or will receive an incentive payment from another government scheme, such as the CCA.
Why use it? You do not have to pay it back; and it could deliver a significant sum towards reducing energy usage, which itself has cost savings.
Further details www.bit.ly/GovtEDR
Contact edr-project@decc.gsi.gov.uk
Regional schemes
Taylor says it is also worth contacting your local authority to ask if there are any local projects they may be running.
“There are various, occasional schemes out there whereby businesses can get partially or fully funded consultancy to help them with environmental improvements,” says Taylor.
“These schemes all differ, and are not usually open-ended. They are typically a couple of years or so, but some are longer. It’s a question of searching for them. They can be very good for a company if they make use of it - using the information they are given rather than getting caught up in the usual business and so not having time to do anything with what they’ve learned, and so missing out on potential savings.”
